09032019-ATR-01.qxd 3/9/2019 12:03 AM Page 1 c m y b Amritsar TRIBUNE PUBLIC MONEY MISUSED FOR CONG’S MOGA RALLY: MALIK PAGE 2 Also terms Rahul Gandhi and Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu poster boys of Pakistan. FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY PAGE 3 TOO MUCH TO HANDLE, STORY GETS JUMBLED UP REJECTIONS TEACH YOU A LOT, SAYS ACTRESS SHEEN DASS There are family ties, discords, village life, connecting with the roots and a wedding in Guddiyan Patole. MAX 26°C | MIN 11°C | YESTERDAY MAX 27°C | MIN 11°C SUNSET SATURDAY 6:34 PM PAGE 4 To be seen in &TV’s show Shaadi Ke Siyape; says most of the reality shows lose their charm after the first season SUNRISE SUNDAY 6:48 AM SATURDAY | 9 MARCH 2019 | AMRITSAR Process on to declare AP Singh proclaimed offender A day to rejoice Govt paddy worth ~33 crore misappropriated by mill owner PK Jaiswar Tribune News Service A group of girls performs 'giddha' and a student (left) shows her skills during the International Women's Day celebrations at Shahzada Nand College in Amritsar. A number of schools, colleges and nongovernmental organisations held different events, including competitions on debate, poetry and cultural programmes. Students showed their talent and drew thunderous applauses from the gathering. PHOTOS: VISHAL KUMAR Migrant succumbs to burn injuries Amritsar, March 8 A migrant, identified as Ram Sewak (30), died three days after sustaining burn injuries while boiling milk at a sweet shop at Gurbax Nagar in Nava Kot here on Friday. He hailed from Uttar Pradesh. Investigating officer Surinder Singh said he INBRIEF BID TO TAKE MOBILE TO INMATE Amritsar: A woman tried to take a mobile phone to her husband lodged in the Amritsar Central Jail here on Thursday. The mobile was recovered during checking. She had hidden the same in her private parts. The police have registered a case under Sections 42 and 52-A of the Prisons Act against her and her husband, Sukhwinder Singh. Sukhwinder is in the jail in connection with a fraud case registered against him by NRI police station. The accused had come to meet him when the jail authorities got suspicious. During checking, they recovered a mobile phone from her private parts. The police said she was released on bail later. TNS FUEL PRICES PETROL ~72.72 DIESEL ~68.95 was boiling milk when a flame burst caught him on Tuesday. He was immediately rushed to a private hospital where he succumbed on Friday. The police have initiated action under Section 174 of the CrPC and further investigation is under way, he added. — TNS Amritsar, March 8 The probe into the infamous Jandiala Guru paddy bungling has been shifted to the Vigilance Bureau, Chandigarh. Meanwhile, sleuths have initiated the process to declare District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC) AP Singh a proclaimed offender. Several officials of the district food and civil supplies department have already been arrested. Vigilance SSP RK Bakshi, who conducted the probe here, confirmed the development. He said Vigilance AIG S Boopathi would investigate the government paddy scam, pegged at over Rs 33 crore. The AIG could not be contacted even after repeated attempts. Till now, the Vigilance has nabbed then district food and civil supply officer Raminder Singh, ASFP Vipin Sharma, Inspector Gurjinder Singh THE CASE The family owning Veerumal Mulakhraj Rice Mill fled after closing it. Officials have found around 400 wagons of paddy worth Rs 33 crore missing. The mill was allotted around 18 tonnes of government paddy for milling against its capacity of 5-6 tonnes, on the basis of which the owners took loan to the tune of Rs 200 crore from a bank. Later, Gulshan Jain and his family members, including Nitin Jain, his wife Nitu Jain, Sudhir Jain and his wife Sofia Jain, were booked in April last year. Later, the Vigilance Bureau included the names of four officials in the FIR. and another official, Parminder Singh Bhatia. AP Singh has been evading the arrest. Meanwhile, information procured by local RTI activist Gurmeet Singh has pointed out how officials connived in order to benefit the Veerumal Mulakhraj Rice Mill located in Jandiala Guru. Gurmeet said an agreement between the firm in question and the Pungrain was made on a simple paper which should have been made on stamp papers. It has the signatures of the accused officials thereby clearly indicating that they knew about the discrepancies. “It was all pre-planned and the district food and civil supply officials are involved in this as per the documents,” he alleged. He said the vigilance should also book the guarantors of the firm as they were also equally responsible for the fraud. He said a reputed rice mill director is one of the guarantors of the Veerumal Mulakhraj Rice Mill. A huge quantity of government paddy was misappropriated from the mill. The incident came to light when the owners went underground after shutting it down. As per vigilance officials, the rice mill was allotted around 18 tonnes of government paddy for milling against its capacity of 5-6 tonnes and it was not possible without the involvement of the food and civil supplies officials. It clearly indicates that the officials didn’t care two hoots while allotting the government paddy on the basis of which the owners took loan to the tune of Rs 200 crore from a bank. The police had registered a case of fraud against mill owner Gulshan Jain and his family members, including Nitin Jain, his wife Nitu Jain, Sudhir Jain and his wife Sofia Jain in April last year. Later, the Vigilance Bureau included the names of four officials in the FIR. During the verification, a team constituted by the Punjab government reportedly found around 400 wagons of paddy worth Rs 33crore missing. Garbage-lifting services in four more wards Amritsar, March 8 After initiating its pilot project in two wards for door to door garbage lifting, now the Municipal Corporation (MC) has decided to cover four more wards in the walled city. The solid waste management company has been collecting garbage from two out of eleven wards in the city. It has been a long pending demand of councillors and residents of the walled city. Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu said the ranking of the city in the Swachh City list has been suffering due to nonavailability of door to door garbage collection system in the wards of walled city. The MC’s target is cover the entire walled city under this project from April. — TNS Officials of a pharmaceutical firm hand over a cheque to the family of martyr Sukhjinder Singh in Gandiwind village, Amritsar, on Friday. PHOTO: GURBAXPURI 19,000 city establishments without licence Martyr’s family gets ~5 L Tribune News Service Amritsar, March 8 The Municipal Corporation (MC) has completed a survey on commercial establishments in the city. At a meeting with the chief sanitary inspectors, Estate Officer Sushant Bhatia said they had found 34,000 commercial establishments in the city, but only 15,000 are licenced to ❝Citizen Facilitation Centres are there in different areas where people can apply for licence. ❞ Karamjit Singh Rintu, MAYOR run commercial activities. He asked the chief sanitary inspectors to motivate the traders to obtain the licence. The MC has given an ultimatum to traders to get the same till March 31. “As per the law, everyone has to get a licence to run commercial activity in the MC limits. We have given them time till March 31 to get the same. We have the database. Those failing to get licence should be ready to face the music,” said Bhatia. Mayor Karamjit Singh Rin- tu said the process for licence application was quite easy. The MC has established the Citizen Facilitation Centres in different areas of the city. “The residents are advised to apply for licences immediately to avoid sealing and penalty,” Bhatia added. The civic body targets collection of Rs 1.5 crore as licence fee and Rs 3 crore from conservancy charges. Our Correspondent Tarn Taran, March 8 The family of CRPF jawan Sukhjinder Singh, martyred in Pulwama terrorist attack, was given a financial help worth Rs 5 lakh by Mumbaibased Macleods Pharmaceuticals company. The cheque for the said amount was handed over by company president Gopal Sharma to Sarabjit Kaur, wife of the brave heart in his native village Gandiwind Dhattal, 35 km from here. GL Bawri, chairman of the company, has announced financial aid for the families of all 42 martyrs. MLA Dharambir Agnihotri, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Sandeep Rishi and other personalities, too. Usman toll plaza Beyoutiful is the Women’s Day mantra staff beaten up Neha Saini Tribune News Service Our Correspondent THE CASE Tarn Taran, March 8 A group of 20 unidentified youths, armed with daggers, swords and baseball bats, attacked the employees of the Usman toll plaza, 10 km from here, on Thursday. After inflicting damages on the toll plaza property in broad daylight, they fled. The Sarhali police have registered a case under Sections 323, 427, 506, 148 and 149 of the IPC against the accused, said ASI Gurpal Singh, investigating officer. The whole incident has been captured in the CCTV cameras of the plaza. The ASI said none of the accused has been identified yet. The attackers appear to Around 20 youths are said to have attacked the toll plaza staff and vandalised the property. Though captured in CCTV cameras, none of the accused has been identified. They were armed with daggers, swords and baseball bats. be outsiders, he said. Ajay Singh, manager of the plaza, mentioned in his police complaint that the accused came in cars and motorcycles and started thrashing the employees of the plaza. When the employees managed to escape, the attackers damaged the property with their baseball bats and sticks. The staff of the plaza have demanded security. Amritsar, March 8 In the now famous words of Bollywood’s fearless queen Kangna Ranaut, women do not need to be empowered, just let them be and they will be fine! Well, the sentiment was endorsed yet again by Phulkari- Women of Amritsar at an event celebrating International Women’s Day, where designers Kaveri Lalchand and Pranay Baidya spoke about self acceptance as one of the biggest aspect of empowerment. “Just be beautiful and just be you. It is very important for women to love them self first more than anyone in her life,” said Pranay, Kolkattabased designer. Chennaibased designer and theatre person Kaveri Lalchand, too, endorsed the idea of self c m y b Panelists at a Phulkari event on Friday. PHOTO: VISHAL KUMAR acceptance. “We all wake up thinking we are not good enough. We judge ourselves and one another. This women’s day I simply want to share with all women out there – You cannot size my soul.” Becoming a platform to discuss body positivity and sexuality in context of women empowerment, the speakers added that body shaming has to be rooted out from within. “Body positivity is not gender specific as men and women both face certain insecurities, but women are judged more base on the size, complexion and physical attributes. This has to stop. Mothers needs to be self assured to pass it on their kids and society as whole needs to work towards making it a reality,” said Pranay. Sharing his own experience of ‘coming out of the closet’, Pranay said the fact that homosexuals need to come out is what is worn with our perception of the concept. ‘If a heterosexual individual doesn’t need to mention it every time in order to come out, why should a gay person do that. My coming out journey was made a bit easier by my mother as coming from a traditional Bengali family, she accepted my being complete- ly and positively,” he said. Kaveri, on the other hand, felt that since fashion and beauty industry is one of the biggest influencers of body stereotypes, the change should begin from there. “As an insider in the industry, I feel that the change might take long, but it definitely is beginning.” The other panelists included Preeti Gill and Parul Sikka. Phlukari also held a small exhibition by local talent. Founder and president of Phulkari, Praneet Bubber, said, “We hope to make it an annual Women’s Day event where local talent, entrepreneurs and NGOs can come together for a larger cause. This time, Phulkari is supporting the children from the IBADAAT special needs school to showcase their work at the Bazaar.”

The Tribune, now published from Chandigarh, started publication on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan). It was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist, and is run by a trust comprising four eminent persons as trustees.
The Tribune, the largest selling daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the paper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.
The English edition apart, the 133-year-old Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).